The Long Way Westward
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
America, at last! This classic early reader tells an exciting story and is also a good launching pad for classroom and home discussions.
The Long Way Westward relates the experiences of two young brothers and their family, immigrants from Sweden, from their arrival in New York through the journey to their new home in Minnesota.
This lively sequel to The Long Way to a New Land follows the fortunes of Carl Erik’s family from New York City to the farmlands of Minnesota. "Historically accurate; will attract competent primary-grade readers and will be equally suitable for less able readers in intermediate grades." (School Library Journal)
As a fan of this book and its companion, The Long Way to a New Land, put it: "The books describe the difficulty and dangers of the journey in a way that is non-complaining and full of optimism for a new life in America. Teachers, these books are wonderful for integrating with other subjects and topics, such as immigration, westward expansion, steamships, trains, geography, and American life in the 1860s."
Author-artist Joan Sandin's grandfather was born in Sweden and immigrated to Wisconsin with his parents in 1882, when he was only two. Joan herself spent time in Sweden and did extensive research to create her well-loved classic books about the immigrant experience.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This sequel to The Long Way to a New Land follows a Swedish family traveling west across America to homestead in Minnesota. Their journey is not an easy one: sometimes the cars in the emigrant train have no seats, and in Pittsburgh they have to spend the night on the station floor. But they arrive safely at their destination, happy to have left poverty and famine behind and eager to start afresh in their new land. Sandin's graceful text never condescends, and is perfectly suited (as are so many of the other fine I Can Read books) to the beginning reader. She is also a talented artist, and the story springs to life through her finely drawn pen-and-ink drawings, washed with watercolors. From the clatter and bustle of New York City to the splendor of the rich Pennsylvania farmlands and a moonlit steamboat ride up the Mississippi River, Sandin vividly captures the flavor of an emigrant family's journey as seen through a child's eyes. A map is included. Ages 4-8.
